Originally posted by Mike ZeidlerHis number one star would be upset and may take his ball and go home. So to appease him, his opponent of choice has been re-instated.

If I read this right then, we should see Vince's threat to fire Cena (but not Punk) as Vince losing it and going for the nuclear option. Punk, it can be argued, said his comments to the WWE universe, but Cena said his mind to Vince's face. That makes a better sense than Vince being more willing to lose Cena than Punk, who's out the door by month's end anyway.

Originally posted by Mike ZeidlerHis number one star would be upset and may take his ball and go home. So to appease him, his opponent of choice has been re-instated.

If I read this right then, we should see Vince's threat to fire Cena (but not Punk) as Vince losing it and going for the nuclear option. Punk, it can be argued, said his comments to the WWE universe, but Cena said his mind to Vince's face. That makes a better sense than Vince being more willing to lose Cena than Punk, who's out the door by month's end anyway.

I took it more as not wanting to lose the champ. If Cena's no longer the champ, he's fireable. He wants to suspend Punk so he can't leave as the champ. It's not the person, it's the sanctity of the title that Vince is fighting for.

I thought the show was done well and I think the only reason people are complaining is that they JUST did a "Cena Fired" angle that had no teeth. And that is why you don't overuse these types of angles and then not pay them off, when you need them, they are meaningless.

But I LIKE the title being important again.

From wwe.com:

"Eight SmackDown Superstars will compete in one of the explosive contests, battling for the right to challenge a WWE World Champion at any time, at any place, for up to one year."

So that opens up the possibilities. And is it possible we get a DOUBLE switch? Or TWO cash ins?

Looking at the participants of both MITB's, I think the most likely outcome is Miz saving WWE from Punk and turning face. Also possible would be Rey because of his history with Punk.

Looking at the participants of both MITB's, I think the most likely outcome is Miz saving WWE from Punk and turning face. Also possible would be Rey because of his history with Punk.

I think if anyone's gonna do it, it'll be Rey. He's been World Heavyweight Champion twice but has never held the WWE Championship, and as one of the biggest babyfaces on the roster, a title win by Rey is a great way to send the fans home happy.

"Let me tell you something, Leo... after heroin and cocaine, tobacco is next.""Great. Another criminal empire we can give birth to."--President Jed Bartlet and Leo McGarry, The West Wing

But if they do two, the Raw cash-in has to come first (because it's about the WWE title) and fail. Therefore I would say: R-Truth? He could live with being the first ever MitB winner to not cash in successfully. It would give him one more reason to complain about a conspiracy.

But then, of course, the second guy cashing-in and winning would have to be from SmackDown and credible enough to go home with the belt. And who could that be? Daniel Bryan??? They'd never do that, right? And it would need a loooooong and great match between him and Punk (after a probably long Punk/Cena match and R-Truth's cash-in) to get him over as a credible champ in the eyes of the WWE Universe. But who else then?

Cena beating Punk clean would be the worst possible outcome, but it wouldn't surprise me. If that happens, then Punk is gone for the time being. It would be hilarious if Punk convinced Vince to let him leave by putting Cena over in a big way and ended up getting himself over more than any point in his career.

Originally posted by Mike ZeidlerHis number one star would be upset and may take his ball and go home. So to appease him, his opponent of choice has been re-instated.

If I read this right then, we should see Vince's threat to fire Cena (but not Punk) as Vince losing it and going for the nuclear option. Punk, it can be argued, said his comments to the WWE universe, but Cena said his mind to Vince's face. That makes a better sense than Vince being more willing to lose Cena than Punk, who's out the door by month's end anyway.

I took it more as not wanting to lose the champ. If Cena's no longer the champ, he's fireable. He wants to suspend Punk so he can't leave as the champ. It's not the person, it's the sanctity of the title that Vince is fighting for.

I think this is closest to what they're going for, or at least what they should be going for. The way I think this is all meant to be playing out so far is that if Punk quits and leaves with the title, Vince's take is that he knows that whoever the next champion is, no matter how he earns the title, he'll never truly be the WWE Champion, since the "true" champ made a public point of walking out undefeated. Basically, the WWE Championship is meaningless for ever after if Punk walks away without having lost the belt. And if Cena can never be the "real" WWE Champion for Vince again, then he's essentially worthless to him, on top of the insult of being the guy who failed to save the title.

I don't they've presented this as clearly as they could, but they still have another week (and have now had two weeks to think about it), and that segment was done with no time to gauge reaction by two guys not nearly as good as working free form like that as Punk did just two hours earlier. It's a little odd that Punk's side of the angle is so shoot-y but they don't have Vince connecting the dots for everyone by saying what he's implying (that this is the exact crisis he faced with Bret, which would even up the intrigue by planting the seeds for a potential Cena turn). And it would have been helpful for them to address the Nexus firing, even with a simple line from Vince about Cena being dumb enough to get himself in a situation where the Nexus got him fired and Vince needed to step in and let him back on the show, and how that helped shake Vince's confidence that Cena wouldn't be dumb enough to lose when the stakes are even higher now.

But they've at least implied most of that, and still have a week to tweak it, with hopes that this is going somewhere bigger with more Punk presence. I think the biggest hole so far is that the Smackdown title kind of gets thrown under the bus a little more, since the implication is that Punk would be leaving with the title that actually matters. If Orton was still the World Heavyweight Champion at night's end, that would undercut the sting of Punk leaving, since Orton had just gotten a decisive win over the departed phantom champ and would theoretically be the de facto WWE champion.

This would be true with a lot of audiences, but not with CM Punk in Chicago. They may try, but I don't know that it'll be possible to turn that audience against Punk at MitB.

Kinda want to go this. I've convinced myself it's going to be a Event with a capital E, and I do like those. But $25+$20 parking dampens my enthusiasm.

They hooked me, and I haven't paid to see a WWE event since back when they still had the F in their name. Part of me thinks I might finally see a real live riot at a rasslin' show if Punk does lose to Cena. Part of me is way too optimistic sometimes.